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How I View Africa: a college student's decision to honor his faith and homeland

Sawaneh said he always focuses more on the heart than appearance

LaMin Sawaneh wears a necklace in the shape of Africa. In 2012, he started a blog called "Howiviewafrica" to debunk stereotypes and discuss why he's proud to be African.

LaMin Sawaneh keeps this card with the words of John 3:16 in his wallet at all times. A Christian woman gave it to him many years ago, and he said it was the only verse he knew before attending Wayland Baptist University.

LaMin Sawaneh is the author and created of the blog Howiviewafrica and it's corresponding Facebook page. On it, he posts photos that make him proud to be African, like the one pictured here with a father happily carrying his son.

LaMin Sawaneh wears a necklace in the shape of Africa. In 2012, he started a blog called "Howiviewafrica" to debunk stereotypes and discuss why he's proud to be African.

LaMin Sawaneh carries an old, worn card with a Bible verse in his wallet. Although he memorized the words long ago, he still takes it out from time to time to reflect on its message — “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son (Jesus) that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Sawaneh said he received the card many years ago from a woman who approached him on an Atlanta street, and before arriving at Wayland Baptist University in 2011, John 3:16 was the only Bible verse he knew.

Now, a devout Christian and student of the Bible as well as finance and economics, Sawaneh has turned to blogging to spread the message of God’s love as well as his own passion for his West African roots.

A rough past

Sawaneh was 10 years old when he fled Sierra Leone during the country’s decade-long civil war. His sister, who was in her early 20s at the time, planned to leave for the U.S. with her two sons.

Sawaneh said he remembers his mother saying, “Take your brother with you.”

They never saw her again.

Sawaneh said his mother died a year later, presumably from illness, but he’s still not sure of the circumstances. His father, who also remained in Africa, died last year.

Sawaneh and his sister settled in Atlanta, where he helped raise his two nephews as his sister worked to provide for them all.

“I was a kid, too, but still had to be responsible early on,” he said.

Now 24 and a junior at Wayland, Sawaneh’s Krio accent has faded, but his love for his country has not.

How I View Africa

“The way I came across it was Tumblr, a few blogs. I saw images of Africa and thought, ‘Oh, this is so cool!’ It just kind of hit me. This is home. I did this stuff as a kid,” Sawaneh said when asked how he came up with the idea for his popular blog, “Howiviewafrica.”

“When you think of Africa — darkness, AIDS, slavery. It’s not like that. It’s much more than that. People are happy. What you focus on is what you tend to see. What about the good things?”

He uses the Tumblr website to find photos that reflect the positive of Africa and debunk myths, such as, “Everybody lives in huts” or “Lions and zebras run wild,” Sawaneh said.

“I’ve never even seen a lion,” he laughed. “I’ve never been to the zoo.”

And while huts are truly a part of the culture, he said, people tend to leave out the mansions and skyscrapers in their stories.

He focused on a picture he posted recently of a father carrying his son in a sling in front of him. He calls it “Fatherhood is Priceless.”

“In the same picture, I see a happy father carrying his son. Other people may see, ‘Look what he’s wearing’ — a dirty tank top — or ‘He’s so poor.’ ”

Sawaneh said he always focuses more on the heart than appearance, because God does that too, he said.

Discovering God

“I went to church, but I didn’t take it as serious,” Sawaneh said of his early days in the U.S. “I always knew there was something there.”

After deciding he needed to get close to God and choosing Wayland as the place to do it — and play soccer — Sawaneh said he spent every penny in his bank account on a one-way ticket to Texas.

However, when he reached the airport in Denver to change planes, he was told they had given up his seat and that he would have to wait. The airline put him on a later flight and, as a result, refunded him for the total amount of the ticket.

Though he was not a Christian at the time, Sawaneh said he remembers thinking, “Somebody is working in my favor. Not just a coincidence.”

Upon arriving at Wayland in 2011, he started attending Harvest Christian Fellowship. Through the church’s focus on being multi-generational and multi-cultural the idea for a blog was born.

The blog’s success

“I really want to change stereotypes but do it in the right way,” Sawaneh said.

The blog isn’t just about Africa but also about his faith. He prays over every post, he said.

“I put my heart and soul into everything. It’s out of my control once I hit enter. I pray that it will impact something.”

Sawaneh believes God has given him a unique vision for reaching people all over the world, and not just blacks, but white people too.

“I want them to feel they should travel, go see where their people came from,” Sawaneh said, adding black people should be proud of their roots.

“And white people — encourage them to showcase positive view of travels.”

The blog and its corresponding Facebook page have over 252,000 likes and fans from the U.S., Brazil, Italy, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Canada, as well as African countries Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa. Each post gets at least 1,000 likes, he said, but he’s seen up to half a million.

The site has become so popular that other users have started posing as Sawaneh on the Internet — the price of being famous, he joked.

“I must be doing something right.”

His goal is to impact and change lives, he said, quoting Mahatma Gandhi — “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”

“If I’m going to be the change I want to see, I got to tell people my view,” Sawaneh said. “We all have views in this world. Take ownership of that. It’s the only way you can change it.”

Sawaneh has not been back to Africa since the 1990s but is planning a trip to Gambia this summer to see where his father grew up.

Though he won’t be stopping in Sierra Leone this time, Sawaneh and his long-time girlfriend, who wears the Miss Sierra Leone USA crown, hope to see their home country again together someday.